Understanding Community Right to Build Orders

Have you heard about the Community Right to Build Order? This powerful tool, established by the Localism Act, gives certain local community groups the ability to develop smaller projects on specific plots of land. What's excellent is that you can often do this without needing to go through the usual planning permission process.

This initiative provides fantastic flexibility, allowing your community to construct the facilities it truly needs. For example, you could consider building:

• Small-scale housing solutions

• Essential local amenities, such as new playgrounds

• Community hubs, including village halls

A significant advantage of proceeding with these developments is that any financial or social value generated by the projects remains entirely within your community. This ensures the benefits are continually used for local good, perhaps by funding the upkeep of affordable housing or maintaining other vital community facilities.

However, there are a few important conditions your proposals must meet for these orders to proceed:

• Your proposed development must remain below specific size thresholds. This is crucial to avoid triggering an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which is a detailed study on how the project might affect the environment.

• An independent expert will need to review all proposals thoroughly.

• Finally, your community must vote to approve the project in a local referendum.

For more detailed information and support, you can visit mycommunity.org.uk.

You can also examine the government's official policy regarding Localism and the Community Right to Build.